Parolee domestic-violence bill goes to Quinn

May 14, 2009

Parolees accused of domestic violence would be automatically arrested for violating their parole under a measure sent to Gov. Pat Quinn today.The bill comes a little more than a year after a woman was killed in Chicago by a former boyfriend on parole for murder. Mersaides McCauley, 22, was shot to death by Glen Martinez five months after he was arrested for attacking her and a parole officer declined to push to revoke his parole and he was freed.

Under current state law, arrest warrants must be issued only if parolees commit felonies with a knife or firearm or don't register as sex offenders. In all other cases, arrest warrants for parole violations are issued at the state's discretion and decided on a case-by-case basis. The new law would take away that discretion for domestic violence crimes.

The measure would also double the mandatory supervised release term for a number of domestic violence crimes to four years from two. Also, the bill would require 40 hours of domestic violence training for all parole officers handling offenders convicted of domestic violence felonies.

Cara Smith, deputy chief of staff for Illinois Atty. Gen. Lisa Madigan, who pushed for the changes in the law after McCauley was murdered in April 2008, said the hope is the legislation could prevent similar tragedies. A bill last year died without a vote in the Senate.

McCauley's father filed a wrongful-death suit in February, saying the state should have stepped in when Martinez was arrested for allegedly choking McCauley in November 2007.

Ten days before his trial on the battery charge, Martinez ambushed McCauley as she sat in her car after attending services at a Near Northwest Side church. He shot her several times, left the scene and killed himself about an hour later, police said.

Less than a week after the Tribune detailed the case, the Illinois Department of Corrections changed its policy to keep parolees such as Martinez behind bars if they are charged with a violent misdemeanor. But the attorney general's office and crime-victim advocates said the law needed to be amended to cement the change.

"Every red flag was there," Smith said. "We're thinking this elevates the state's handling of domestic violence by parolees to a high level."